Re: Found: One tables-like character

[Adam McLean <alchemy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 22:31 20/06/00 -1000, you wrote:
>	I found a very Voynich like character in a semi pop occult book
>in Border's Bookstore, the reference is at the bottom.  It was
>in an entry for Johannes Trithemius.  I'm sure Rafal is familiar
>with him, and a lot of things in there suggested to me that he
>(or one of his students) might be a good candidate for the
>writer (though he died in 1516). More on that later, I am very
>busy right now. 
>	The character:  The text mentions that Trithemius used
>steganographic characters, in the margin they had a small
>picture marked "steganographic characters such as those used by
>Trithemius"  they had no reference as to whether the writer was
>Trithemius or someone else or where the picture came from. 


Dear Brian,

These are standard alchemical characters familiar in the 16th and 
17th centuries. They have nothing directly to do with Trithemius,
and are not "Steganographic" but straighforward conventional (at
least to the alchemists of the time) signs. Please do not rely on
the Diana Fernando book. She is a really well motivated person and 
has done a nice job or redrawing some alchemical engravings but
her lack of scholarly methodology lets her down. That is my kind 
way of putting it !

Some of the illustrations in her book are misleading to those
who have not studied the subject in depth. An example is on p63 
where a portrait of Newton is shown on an alchemical book of
Philalethes. Last year someone wrote to me thinking this was 
real. Also note the book by Dee on page 110 - another fabrication
which serves to amuse but also confuses those who have not 
studied the subject in any depth.

Beware such glossy popular works - they are full of errors and
the distortions of secondary and tertiary research.

Adam McLean
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